Method for receiving and managing a downlink radio link control data block in an EGPRS mobile electronic communication device

ABSTRACT

In a mobile electronic communication device for receiving a downlink radio link control (RLC) data block, the improvement comprising determining whether an Extension (E) bit within a header of the data block has been reset to zero, thereby denoting the existence of extension octets within the data block, summing the lengths of the extension octets, calculating the number of bytes in the data block, and discarding the data block in the event the sum of the lengths is greater than the number of bytes in the data block.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/489,669,filed Jul. 20, 2006, which claims priority from U.S. provisional patentapplication No. 60/731,863, filed Nov. 1, 2005, the contents of whichare incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

The present specification relates to a mobile communication system, andmore particularly to a method for receiving and managing a downlinkradio link control (RLC) data block in an Enhanced General Packet RadioSystem (EGPRS) mobile electronic communication device.

BACKGROUND

Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is the dominant worldstandard for 3G wireless voice and data communications. In a typical GSMcommunication system, speech and/or data is encoded at the source andtransmitted over a network to a receiver. Upon receipt of thetransmitted data, the receiver performs channel equalization anddecoding to return the speech and/or data to a recognizable form fordelivery to the user. GSM/EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GlobalEvolution) represents the latest stage in the evolution of the GSMstandard. EDGE uses a modulation schema to enable theoretical dataspeeds of up to 384 kbits within the existing GSM spectrum.

The General Packet Radio System (GPRS) was developed as a packet datanetwork for the GSM standard. A GSM cellular phone uses Gaussian MinimumShift Keying (GMSK) for modulation at the Physical Layer. The GSMspecification has gone through several revisions, each addingenhancements to the network. One such revision of the specification isEnhanced GPRS or EGPRS, which provides higher data rates through the useof 8PSK modulation and GMSK on the Physical Layer, in addition toperformance improvements in the Radio Link Control (RLC) and MediaAccess Control (MAC) sublayers through the use of adaptive coding andincremental redundancy. These changes in the Physical Layer areessential to the EDGE component of the modern GSM/EDGE Network.

In EGPRS, the RLC/MAC layers on either side of the network are situatedat the mobile electronic communication device, or Mobile Station (MS),and the Base Station Subsystem (BSS). The peer RLC/MAC entitiescommunicate using Radio Blocks of one or more RLC/MAC Protocol DataUnits (PDU). Each PDU is numbered using a Block Sequence Number (BSN).In acknowledge mode, the BSNs are tracked by the sending and receivingRLC/MAC entities to allow for erroneous blocks to be corrected bysending additional and incremental information to aid decoding. Fordownlink (BSS to MS) status, the BSS polls the MS to request the statusof received blocks, and the MS replies with a status report (the PACKETDOWNLINK ACK/NACK) within a required period of time. For uplink (MS toBSS) status, the BSS periodically sends a status report (PACKET UPLINKACK/NACK) to each communicating MS.

Procedures used at the radio interface for the GPRS Medium AccessControl/Radio Link Control (MAC/RLC) layer are set forth in the 3rdGeneration Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group DigitalCellular Telecommunications System (Phase 2+); General Packet RadioService (GPRS); Mobile Station (MS)—Base Station System (BSS) interface;Radio Link Control/Medium Access Control (RLC/MAC) protocol 3GPP TS04.60 V8.27.0, September 2005.

The RLC function defines the procedures for segmentation and reassemblyof Logical Link Control (LLC) PDUs into RLC/MAC blocks, as well as linkadaptation. Different RLC/MAC block structures are defined for datatransfers and control message transfers. The RLC/MAC block structuresfor data transfers are different for GPRS and EGPRS, whereas the sameRLC/MAC block structure is used for control message transfers. The EGPRSdownlink RLC data block includes one or more extension (E) bits forindicating the presence of optional extension octets in the RLC datablock. Although the E bit is considered to be a header field, it istransmitted in the data portion of the block. When the E bit is reset to0, then an optional extension octet follows immediately thereafter,where the extension octet comprises a 7-bit length indicator (LI) forindicating the length (i.e. number of octets) of the LLC PDU, and afurther E bit to indicate any further extension octets. If the E bit isset to 1 then no extension octet follows and the LLC PDUs followimmediately. Thus, when the E bit of the data block is set to 1, thisindicates that an LLC frame ends in the current RLC data block. TheRLC/MAC component within the Mobile Station (MS) then passes the data toupper layers, which perform their own error checking.

During downlink transmission of EDGE data blocks, the Mobile Station(MS) will sometimes decode the data block incorrectly, yet the CRC checkwill pass. For example, if the E bit is incorrectly reset to 0 as aresult of packet corruption, the RLC data block will be misinterpretedas length indicators (LI) of the LLC data frames remaining in that RLCdata block. This causes the LLC data frame to end prematurely.Ultimately, this error is detected within the LLC layer, and the entireIP packet is discarded and re-requested from the Base Station (BS),contributing to delay and reduced data throughput.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The specification will be better understood with reference to thefollowing Figures in which like numerals denote like parts and in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a mobile electronic communication devicefor implementing the preferred embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of a downlink EGPRS radio linkcontrol (RLC) data block;

FIGS. 3A-3C show examples of various different RLC data blocks; and

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the method for receiving and managing adownlink RLC data block as in FIG. 2 within the mobile electroniccommunication device of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In one aspect of this specification, detection of an incorrectly reset Ebit is effected prior to processing the data block. As indicated above,the EGPRS protocol specifies that if the E bit has been reset to 0, thenthe following bytes of the RLC data block are Length Indicators (LI)representing the lengths (number of octets) of the LLC PDUs that end inthat RLC data block. Therefore, if the sum of the lengths is greaterthan the number of bytes in the data block, the RLC data block is deemedto have been corrupted and the data block is discarded before beingpassed to the LLC layers, thereby overcoming the delay and reduced datathroughput disadvantages discussed above.

Generally, there is set forth herein a method comprising a) receiving adata block having at least one bit for denoting presence of associatedextension data and at least one value indicating length of saidextension data; b) determining a logical value of said at least one bit;in the event said bit is a first logical value then c1) calculating asum of each said value; c2) determining size of said extension data; andc3) discarding said data block in the event said sum exceeds said sizeand executing step a); or in the event said bit is other than said firstlogical value then c4) executing step a).

More particularly, there is set forth herein a method of managing adownlink radio link control (RLC) data block in an Enhanced GeneralPacket Radio System (EGPRS) mobile electronic communication device,comprising a) receiving said downlink RLC data block; b) determiningwhether an Extension (E) bit within a header of said RLC data block hasbeen reset to zero, thereby denoting the existence of extension octetswithin said RLC data block, each of said extension octets including alength indicator (LI) for indicating the number of octets in each ofsaid extension octets; c) in the event said Extension (E) bit has notbeen reset to zero then returning to a), and otherwise d) calculating asum of each length indicator (LI) from each of said extension octets; e)calculating the number of bytes in said RLC data block; and f) in theevent said sum exceeds said number of bytes then discarding said RLCdata block and otherwise returning to a).

Referring to FIG. 1, a block diagram is provided of a mobile electroniccommunications device 22. The mobile electronic communications device 22is based on a microcomputer that includes a processor 46 connected to aread-only-memory (ROM) 48 that contains a plurality of applicationsexecutable by the processor 46. The processor 46 is also connected to arandom access memory unit (RAM) 50 and a persistent storage device 52which are responsible for various non-volatile storage functions of theportable device 22. The processor 46 receives input from input devices54 such as a keyboard. The processor 46 outputs to output devices 56such as an LCD display. The processor 46 is also connected to aninternal clock 58 and a radio device 60 which in turn is connected to anantenna 61. Together, the radio device 60 and the antenna 61 are used tocommunicate over a GSM radio communications channel, as discussed above.Thus, the mobile electronic communications device 22 is operable toreceive and transmit communication signals containing data that iscommunicated to and from a remote Base Station System (BSS) via theradio device 60 and the antenna 61.

More particularly, the processor 46 includes software for implementingRLC functions such as (1) transferring LLC PDUs between the LLC layerand MAC function, (2) segmentation of LLC PDUs into RLC data blocks andre-assembly of RLC data blocks into LLC PDUs, (3) segmentation ofRLC/MAC control messages into RLC/MAC control blocks and re-assembly ofRLC/MAC control messages from RLC/MAC control blocks, and (4) BackwardError Correction (BEC) for enabling selective retransmission of RLC datablocks.

FIG. 2 shows an EGPRS downlink RLC data block with a 2-bit headercontaining an FBI bit and E bit. The Final Block Indicator (FBI) bit isused to indicate whether the current downlink RLC data block is the lastRLC data block of the downlink Temporary Block Flow (TBF). If FBI=0,then the current block is not the last RLC data block in TBF, whereas ifFBI=1 then the current block is the last RLC data block in TBF.

As discussed above, the E bit is used to indicate the presence ofoptional octets in the RLC data block header, such as in the examples ofRLC data block delimitation in EGPRS shown in FIGS. 3A-3C. According tothe example of FIG. 3A, the first two RLC blocks of a TBF (downlink)depict the case where LLC PDUs (LLC PDU 3 and LLC PDU 5) stretch overtwo consecutive RLC data blocks. It will be noted that only the lastsegment of the LLC PDU requires a length indicator (LI). In FIG. 3B, theLLC PDU exactly fills the RLC data block (LLC PDU J+2 and LLC PDU J+4)but the last LLC PDU cannot fill the last RLC data block (LLC PDU J+6).In the case where the LLC PDU exactly fills the RLC data block such thatadding an LI for it would push the LLC PDU into the next in-sequence RLCdata block, then the LLC PDU is presented in the RLC data block withouta corresponding LI. If this LLC PDU is not the last of the TBF, itsdelimitation is indicated by the first length indicator (LI) of the nextRLC data block with the value LI=0. In the case where the LLC PDU (orthe last segment of it) does not completely fill the RLC data block, alength indicator of LI=127 is added to the last LI of the RLC datablock. In FIG. 3C, the LLC PDU precisely fills the RLC data block, andboth FBI=1 and E=1.

Turning now to FIG. 4, the method of the preferred embodiment is shownfor receiving a downlink RLC data block (step 89), determining whetherthe Extension (E) bit has been reset (step 91), and if yes (E=0) thensumming the lengths of the extension octets (step 93) and calculatingthe number of bytes in the data block (step 95). The number of bytes inthe data block is the number of whole bytes minus the number of lengthindicators. if the sum of the length indicators (LI) is greater than thenumber of bytes in the data block (step 97) then the RLC data block isdiscarded (step 99).

A specific embodiment has been shown and described herein. However,modifications and variations may occur to those skilled in the art. Allsuch modifications and variations are believed to be within the sphereand scope of the present embodiment.

1. A computer implemented method comprising: receiving a radio linkcontrol (RLC) data block having at least one extension bit for denotingpresence of length indicators (LI) and having a number of octetsfollowing said length indicators (LI), wherein said length indicatorscomprise respective values indicating the length of respective LogicalLink Control Protocol Data Units (LLC PDUs) that end in said RLC datablock; determining a logical value of said at least one extension bit;in the event that said at least one extension bit is a first logicalvalue then counting a sum of said values indicating the length ofrespective Logical Link Control Protocol Data Units (LLC PDUs); countingsaid number of octets following said length indicators (LI); anddiscarding said RLC data block in the event said sum is greater thansaid number of octets and returning to said receiving step.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein said RLC data block is a radio link control‘RLC’ data block in an Enhanced General Packet Radio System ‘EGPRS’,said at least one extension bit is an extension ‘E’ bit for indicatingthe presence of optional extension octets in the RLC data block in theevent said logical value has a first logical value of zero, said size ofsaid associated extension data is a number of bytes in said RLC datablock, and said length indicators are length indicators for indicatingthe number of said optional extension octets associated with respectiveones of said length indicators.
 3. The method of claim 2, furthercomprising managing a downlink radio link control ‘RLC’ data block in anEGPRS mobile electronic communication device, wherein: the step ofreceiving comprises receiving said downlink RLC data block; and the stepof determining comprises determining whether the E bit within a headerof said RLC data block has been reset to zero, thereby denoting theexistence of extension octets within said RLC data block, each of saidextension octets having a LI for indicating the number of octets in eachof said extension octets; calculating a sum of each LI from each of saidextension octets; calculating the number of bytes in said RLC datablock; and in the event said sum exceeds said number of bytes thendiscarding said RLC data block.